Good morning,
They’ve been a fixture of the House of Commons’ public galleries for years: students. Groups of young people from across Canada make a trip to Ottawa and visit the Parliament buildings every year – 58,000 students in 2016-17 alone – with many of those popping into the seat of our democracy to see it in action.
But not for much longer. The Library of Parliament, which operates tours, says it won’t be able to accommodate groups any more when Centre Block closes for renovations. The House’s new home in West Block doesn’t have the space or acoustics for larger groups, the Library said.
When the change takes place is up in the air, as is the timing of the move itself. MPs and Senators were supposed to move out of Centre Block this summer, but delays at West Block and the Government Conference Centre mean the move may not happen until December or next summer. The Board of Internal Economy will decide in two weeks.
This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Chris Hannay in Ottawa, Mayaz Alam in Toronto and James Keller in Vancouver. If you’re reading this on the web or someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, you can sign up for Politics Briefing and all Globe newsletters here. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.
CANADIAN HEADLINES
The Liberal government blocked the sale of construction firm Aecon to a Chinese state-owned company last week, and now is being urged to take a closer look at the activities of telecom giant Huawei in Canada. Huawei, the smartphone maker whose logo you may recognize from all the advertising on hockey broadcasting, is leveraging a network of Canadian universities to research and create products it is then patenting. A Globe investigation on Saturday found just how much the company is using taxpayer-funded institutions to further its own play into the 5G market.
Celina Caesar-Chavannes says she’ll continue being vocal as a Liberal MP to create space for women and people of colour in politics.
One year into his time as leader of the Conservative Party, Andrew Scheer is losing both his chief of staff and communications director.
An average of one Canada Revenue Agency employee per day is disciplined for professional misconduct, a CBC count shows.
We recap the final Ontario election leaders’ debate.
And the Parliamentary Press Gallery Dinner was on the weekend. The annual event (jokingly referred to as “nerd prom” by some reporters) is a chance for journalists and politicians to lay down their arms for one night and pick up their microphones. The highlight of every year are the speeches by party leaders poking fun at themselves and those who report on them. You can read some highlights here or watch the whole thing here.
Campbell Clark (The Globe and Mail) on Michaëlle Jean and La Francophonie: “ Her tenure as secretary-general is doomed. France and some African members of the organization have already settled on a replacement. There’s no reason for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government to keep supporting her bid to stay.”
Penny Collenette (Toronto Star) on the Ontario election: “Ontario voters hopefully are smarter. Voting is best done rationally with accurate facts. A strong examination of party leaders and their intent is necessary in these final days of the campaign.”
Jamil Jivani (The Globe and Mail) on identity politics: “ People who look similarly to one another think differently about who should lead Ontario next, which counters some of the basic assumptions underlying identity politics. But Ontario hasn’t escaped the potential influence of tribalism entirely. Mr. Ford’s recent comments about immigration, for example, could reopen the door to Trump-style campaigning if he isn’t careful.”
Adam Radwanski (The Globe and Mail) on NDP Leader Andrea Horwath: “But Ms. Horwath did not adjust well to the attention that comes with having the momentum. She allowed herself to be so thrown off what worked for her to this point – when she presented herself as a sunny alternative more grounded than her unpopular opponents in Ontarians’ everyday struggles – that her party has reason to worry the race’s trajectory is about to change again.”
John Ibbitson (The Globe and Mail) on the future of Ontario’s Liberals: “Ontario is mostly an urban and suburban province. The Liberals are at home in that environment. An NDP government, if one is formed, will be filled with rookie MPPs and an inexperienced cabinet. It may well stumble. If it does, the Liberals will be waiting in the wings. The question is how long that wait will be.”
Denise Balkissoon (The Globe and Mail) on the Canadian Islamic State returnee: “Law enforcement will decide whether there’s enough evidence to charge Huzaifa for joining the Islamic State or other crimes, but dealing with him is just part of this challenge. We also have to figure out what to do with other young men so desperate for belonging – and with the would-be puppet masters whispering poison in their ears.”
Doug Cuthand (Saskatoon StarPhoenix) on the Indigenous view of nature: “When it comes to nature and the natural world, Indigenous people have a much different world view than the rest of the modern world. This comes out at times when the news media reports on natural disasters that Indigenous people refer to as natural disturbances. It’s overkill to call a natural event a disaster when it has been occurring since the world began.”
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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, fears are growing that the carefully constructed peace that has existed after years of war in the 1990s is starting to unravel. But now, with a political vacuum in Europe, the Republic of Srpska, a Serb mini-state, is hoping Moscow will step in to help it break away. The Globe’s Mark MacKinnon reports from Sarajevo on the Serb nationalist movement, Russia’s attempts to curry favour in the country and the tenuous threads holding Bosnia-Herzegovina together.
After a historic vote that liberalized abortion laws in Ireland, calls have been growing to see similar action in Northern Ireland. More than two-thirds of voters chose to repeal the eighth amendment in Ireland’s constitution, which effectively outlawed abortion. Now, with lawmaking in Northern Ireland having stagnated and governance essentially outsourced to London, the pressure is on British Prime Minister Theresa May to act.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella refused to endorse Paolo Savona, a critic of the euro and the European Union, to the post of economy minister, triggering a potential constitutional crisis. The door remains open for new elections, just months after Italy voted for change. The far-right League and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement are attempting to form government and have demanded a new vote after Mr. Mattarella’s decision.
A pivotal election for president in Colombia came and went without a conclusive result, with the South American country headed for a runoff vote. Right-wing Ivan Duque will face off against leftist Gustavo Petro on June 17 to succeed President Juan Manuel Santos. This is the first presidential election since Mr. Santos helped broker the historic peace accord with the FARC rebels. The future of the deal is at stake at the ballot box.
Officials from the U.S. and North Korea met at the South Korea-North Korea border to prepare for a possible summit. A meeting had been scheduled for June 12 in Singapore but it is unclear whether that will happen, even after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out last week.
German far-right nationalists marched through Berlin yesterday to protest Chancellor Angela Merkel and her government. They numbered over 5,000, police said, and they were met by a variety of conter-protests, which numbered well over 25,000 people.
And a man who migrated to France from Mali is being offered citizenship and a job as a firefighter because of his “exceptional” feat scaling the outside of an apartment building to save a young boy. Mamoudou Gassama’s climb must be seen to be believed.
David A. Welch (The Globe and Mail) on the Trump-Kim summit: “The Singapore summit is not a done deal. There is still ample time to cancel it two or three more times. But if it happens, it will happen because the principals desperately want it to − not because circumstances are ripe for agreement. And most likely the morning-after headlines will read: Kim plays Trump.”
Robert Rotberg (The Globe and Mail) on good news in Malaysia: “Electorates have long tolerated corrupt governance. Despite the persistence of corruption in governments around the world, the Malaysian result is a strong indication that intolerance of fraud and graft is rising, and that the days of impunity for political theft are receding.”
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